Section 18, Article 7 of the Constitution provides that a President, as a commander-in-chief of all armed forces of the Philippines, “may call out such armed forces whenever it becomes necessary to prevent or suppress lawless violence”. “For the city government side, we are working on that it is an Abu Sayyaf retaliation”, Davao mayor Sara Duterte, who is also the president’s daughter, told CNN Philippines.
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The attack comes as the uncompromising president wages war against drug kingpins and dealers, Islamist rebels, and corrupt bureaucrats.
However De la Cerna, spokeswoman of a task force investigating the explosion, said they were not ruling out other motives for the attack.
“In a scale of 1 to 100, we’re looking at 15 percent they (drug lords) are responsible for the bombings, 80 percent yung responsable yung terrorists o bandido, five percent yung maliliit na breakaway group”.
The explosive device was crafted from a mortar round, initial investigations of the fragments taken from the blast site showed, he said.
No group has claimed responsibility, but Duterte said it’s possible the explosion “could be a reprisal” from extremists.
Duterte had initially declared a “state of lawlessness” after the September 2 attack – which has been claimed by Abu Sayyaf extremists – but he said the declaration did not amount to martial law.
Davao is the hometown of the current president Rodrigo Duterte: 14 people died in the attack, at least 60 were wounded. He campaigned on a no-nonsense approach to crime and launched an intense – and deadly – crackdown on drug dealers.
His election has prompted a spike in drug-related killings, with more than 2,000 deaths since he took office on 30 June, almost half of them in police operations.
The government’s heavy-handed tactics have drawn global criticism.
The explosion occurred on Friday around 11.00 pm at a busy night market in the city centre.
The region was under a heightened security alert because of a military offensive against Abu Sayyaf militants, officials said. It was formed by Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who trained in the Middle East and reportedly met with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. But another source says they have disavowed any knowledge of the bombing.
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Arroyo said Duterte is in the best position to declare a state of lawlessness to crush any threat to the country’s peace and order.
